November's Pictures

For those who think that Cadiz Town is a football club then here's the truth. This is a picture of the sprawl of Cadiz along the coast. The mad reach of Cadiz is a little daunting. You drive for ages after crossing the bridge through the town to get to the Cathedral. This is from the path to San Sebastian. It's a weird place and whilst I was there I never looked at a map, I have a GPS (my Wife) and only now do I realise that Cadiz is some sort of strange peninsularish thing. If you do click on the link, please zoom into San Sebastian, it's a fort. Now I have come home it's become more interesting. I just wish I knew that when I was there, instead I was tired of driving from Seville. There is a lesson there but I know that I will never learn it

It's that time of year again and the skating rink in Piccadilly is packed to the rafters as usual... or not as the case maybe. I don't know what was going on but I assume that skating was suspended because of the rain. All that was happening was this chap skating around doing what appeared to be a pointless task, brushing off the water as it came down but one man with a small brush was no match for the skies. Evn if it had stopped raining completely the problem was that there was only one of him and a lot of surface to cover. So instead of watching skaters frolicking about, we moved on.

Just near the Shena Simon building if it's called that still is a statue if it is one (because he's sitting down) of Alan Turing. I have been meaning to take a picture of this for a while and now I have. It's a rubbish picture because of the lack of light causing a bit of bluryness. Of course that's the great thing about digital cameras, rather than tell you that there's not much light they allow you to take a bad picture which of course you can't tell at the time because the screen isn't big enough to show the error.

If you want to know more about the statue then read the usual Wikipedia page.

I just stepped out of my house for lunch and lunch on a Saturday when my daughter is choosing means a trip into town for Chinese Buffet which I am no fan of. If I really wanted average food I'd go and get a pre-packed ready meal. So since my daughter was choosing I was not in store for a trip into town. As I shut the front door all I could hear was a lot of birds cheeping and this is where they were all cheeping from. I quite like the picture myself even though it has nothing much about it so I decided to inflict it on you.

OK it's not been great since coming back from holiday. A lack of motivation guaranteed. No photo ops despite going to Bolton today for shopping. I did want to photo a bridge by my wife swung our drift around the town in a different direction so it's archive pics I'm afraid. I just can't leave zamyatin post free for two weeks.

Mind you I did see what I found is the most annoying car park ever. Floor one is for Ladies only, floor two and three is reserved for contract parking, the fourth is for parent and child and the there's the disabled floor. Finally on floor 6 I found a place I could park. Now don't get me wrong I'm not against disabled parking I'm for it thought I'm not a fan of some of the people who use the spaces (disabled card or not) but the proliferation of special parking spaces is a but ludicrous. You would have thought that the disabled would be on floor 1 however I suspect it might be due to the fact that car park was on a slope and so perhaps I'm being unfair as we left the car park on level 5ish. Did still seem strange, and they didn't give park tickets you get a blue coin. It's all wrong. Change is bad.

Anyway back to the picture. I think there needs no explanation. It's a strange place -Culloden that is- and I recommend you go there. I must admit -and may have mentioned- that I was not in the mood for standing in a field when I went there back in May as it was raining and I had a cold. If you go do the full tour with the presentation, it's really interesting. Of course you can just read the Wikipedia article but of course by doing that you don't get to look at the landscape that the battled played out on which was decisive.

This looked like a good picture as we left the park that housed the Plaza de Espana. Well I thought it was good anyway. Nothing much to say about it other than the park is interesting, a mix of fountains and gardens and a strange man-made waterfall that is just large enough to be a waterfall and just small and man made enough to look silly (or theme parklike). What's worse is it froths like someone has put detergent in it or perhaps you are likely to get the mange from the water if you get too close.

With a theme park on the card we headed off to the other side of the river for the Isla Magica, supposedly to do with Columbus but really just a bunch of rides for all the family. Well all the family who like rides I suppose. Nothing much to report here, it's a theme park and it's as you can imagine, rides, rubbish food and theatrical stuff. The 4d cinema seemed good until you went into the cinema next door. The 4d thing had moving seats and used 3d glasses but the thing next door had better moving seats and 360 degree screen. You all
Also had the chance to loose all the change in your pockets, something that I think marks a good ride. Nothings say quality so much as when you end up scrabbling on your knees for change.

Nothing to do with the picture which is a bit of the Berlin wall inexplicably dumped just off the exit. I did have to take a picture however.

I kept on seeing these signs all over the place on our travels and I could only assume one thing. That it was just like when the UK hosted Euro '96. Spain must be preparing or at least have sealed the deal for Euro 6000. With just under 4000 years to go there is no time to waste. As they always say, it sounds a long time away now but Euro 6000 will be here in a blink of a eye. Of course with such a long time to wait between now and then I suspect they will have the organization down to a tee.

Not the best time to think of the photoblog really because this is the exit. Luckily I got some pictures with a real camera. Jostling with the fray to get a picture of the main bit of the church. It will all come out horribly wrong I suspect when developed. I did see a set of taps that I took a picture of the last time I was here, which was about umm I don't know perhaps 8-10 years ago. Weirdly enough I saw it with a strange feeling of happiness despite the fact that it would of course be there unchanged.

This picture is of the back of the Cathedral which looks similar to the garden in the Mesquita in Cordoba. Perhaps an early Catholic thing.

This again is the Plaza de Espana. This time as promised the crescent bit. It's pretty impressive with a walkway that you can walk under shade just the other side of the pillars you can see. Then you can walk in front on a lower level as you can see and to the right there is a moat with bridges to the fountain. Two problems, the moat is dry and the fountain is unreachable. In the centre of the crescent there is a place where you can enter and walk up to what is a viewing platform where you can see both parts of the crescent. Like I say impressive, would have been better if half wasn't closed of mind you.

Well not actually from the beach it's from a pier like thing that joins to a fort on the beach. I still maintain the beach thing because I could have easily thrown myself over the side of the pier and hit dry(ish) land. The fort was closed which was a way off. We got half way only to see the closed gates at which point I took this and we turned back.

From the top of the hotel you can see this first thing in the morning. First day of the holiday and we have a rooftop swimming pool (closed for winter) from which you get a rather good 360 degree view of Seville. Mind you being a little way from the centre it's impossible to see anything of note, unless you turn directly round where the football stadium blocks your view. I suspect the stadium isn't blocking much of note either. Lots of other pictures today but I am on a ration owing to my forgetting a travel plug. My hope is to buy one before needing a charge.

This may not work just like last night's photo didn't, in which case I shall give up and dump the weeks photos when I come home. Unfortunately I have no way to correct yesterdays error. Today's pic is of the Mesquita (probably spelt wrong). It's a bog standard pic of the Mosque in Cordoba which (in my opinion) didn't look as impressive as I first thought or perhaps more to the point, I think I was expecting more than there was. You decide.

This is one for the towers of the Plaza de Espana. Strange colours courtesy of the phone I am afraid... Well I'm not afraid, actually I quite like it. The Plaza is part of a large park with a semicircle crescent walkway with a huge fountain in the middle. Unfortunately our usual luck is with us and so the fountain was closed off by tents ready for some function or whether. I do have pictures of the crescent but with my bad luck again my pictures don't seem to be getting through. In which case I really do give up.